Aldi - Technosonic PVR £99.99 - Freeview

Lorian

Jefft wrote:

Why would you need a 52 element aerial when you are only 10Km from the transmitter? I presume it is wideband?
Jeff

Like most things, I didn't need it but it was a "bargain" LOL. Miss-priced actually.

It has to be a wideband aerial to get all the MUXes from my local TX.

The signal is fine on a much smaller aerial too, as you'd expect, apart from the same occasional "NSR" errors.

It's certainly different to how it was before. If I get the NSR error on a channel now I can switch to BBC1 and it's ok - back to other channel and NSR again. Maybe some problem going from one MUX to another.

Brockyman

scoobie wrote:

All these no signal reports - is it your aerials thats the problem?
I get no signal sometimes but I know for a fact that the aerial its running off is rubbish - I could hardly get a normal tv picture, especially channel Five

I get the No Signal problem. With my Panasonic freeview box I had no problems at all (Signal always around 90%) and I get a good picture with terrestrial TV. I tried adding in a signal booster but made no difference whatsoever. I never had the No Sound on ITV problem.....until I downloaded the software update and now I get it all the time.
Ian.

-gonzo-

Well there certainly has been a big improvement so far. I left it in standby last night and the clock was still working. Had no signal once after download so done installation again and things seem to be fine...
I think I will keep this pvr and im sure there will be more updates in the future to fix any remaing proplems..

vdub_2

Turned the box on today and received a message informing me that New software had been downloaded and select ok to install. I was really pleased that I have received the update.

.. But disappointed about 20 minutes later when I recieved the no signal message

novice-saver

Mine hung up in standby at 00:13 having been in standby for a couple of hours or so.

Needed a power cycle this morning to recover.

(Previously it would hang during the day if put into standby after it had been used to playback a recording, but would sometime recover just by pressing the remote control "on" button).

Chris_Preston

Well that's it, I'm afraid. I've persevered with it - installed the upgrade - had problems - messed around with it for about 3 hours yesterday - got it working - set it to record overnight - didn't record - won't scroll through channels, now (new fault for me) and No Signal has returned. So I'm off to Aldi this morning for a refund. Hopefully Technosonic will come out with a working one later in the year. Unfortunately, I bought my Mum one for her birthday so I'm going to have to confiscate her present!

diygardener

Since upgrade, mine has managed to record with 100% accuracy so far (before upgrade it was losing most recordings). However, "no signal" problem is now occurring more often than before, and sometimes takes much longer to recover. Also I often get a totally black screen when switching channels or coming out of EPG and this takes a long time to recover. I've had several instances of sound loss which mostly can be fixed by hitting the mute button twice. So, on balance probably more problems than before upgrade. However having looked at the alternatives in the shops I'm still inclined to stick with it and wait for the swap-out.

I'm guessing that the manufacturers deliberately released these boxes with known bugs in them so as not to miss the XMAS market. So, the fix we just got was quite probably developed before the boxes were sold and thus only fixed problems they had found during their own tests (problems related to lost recordings maybe?) We seem to be somewhat more thorough with our testing!

ZZRKarlos

I did the upgrade yesterday and last night gave the machine a good testing session, and I was surprised that it all functioned as it should, I was happy, but them I got the No Signal problem....!!!!!!. I have always had sound on ITV, strange how it affects only some machines.

This is my 4th freeview receiver in our house and I have to say that my other 3 Sony, Matsui and Pace have always been picture perfect. I have a 4 way amplifier to boost the Freeview signal, so I know its not the aerial. I has to be the electronics within the machine. I am on the swap out list when they get the new boxes in, so I will try one of the new ones and hopefully they would have sorted out this issue. It appears to me to be a very fragile operator system, with many bugs that should have been ironed out before release. Maybe these were rushed out for the Christmas rush, who knows.

I just feel sorry for all the people who gave these boxes as presents and now have the hassle of sorting out what to do next. I would say ring the helpline to get your box on the swap list and wait to get the replacement boxes when they get them in very shortly hopefully.

hobo28

Grrrr, I've had the no signal error. Box froze in standby and needed a couple of power off's at the power socket to recover!

I am getting annoyed now. I gave one of these to my sister as an xmas present and am unsure what to do now!

I don't want to return it but its still virtually unusable as it is.

Babbler

Im thinking of getting the HUMAX PVR9200T now. Can these things record off a video? Just wondering as I may use it to transfer a couple of vids to it. Also, can you get programmes off it onto a PC?

Cheers.